Earlier this month a bicycle was stolen from a child in Bonneau. What happened next makes this a great story.
Bonneau Police Chief Franco Fuda says last week, a call came in from a home in Bonneau to report a theft. “The mother, a young mother, said that her son had the bike for a few days. (He had) gotten the bike for his birthday, and it was stolen.”
Chief Fuda said these cases are not easy to solve. “There’s no serial number and typically on a lead like that, unless they pawn it at a pawn shop which were still hoping to locate, then it’s tough to recover those.”
Lori Keller says her son William has autism, and his bike means a lot. “And he doesn’t get outside much. That’s like his big thing. Riding his bike. So when it went missing, it was like devastating for him.”
Chief Fuda says when he learned that, “it just kind of touched my heart.”
So Fuda decided to use his own money to buy the same bike for William.
Lori couldn’t believe it. “You know, the cops are getting a bad rap right now and when they do something good, we need to let everybody know.” She posted on social media about what happened.
Chief Fuda says it wasn’t out of the ordinary in law enforcement. “On my way here a Berkeley County Lieutenant picked up somebody whose car was broke down in Moncks Corner. He’s on his way to St. Stephen to drop them off. Everybody thinks we’re bullets and handcuffs and tickets, but there’s a lot more to law enforcement than that… You know, I didn’t give it a second thought. It wasn’t a matter of should I do it or should not do it. I just looked at my bills and I thought, ‘well I can juggle this bill to here,’ so I went down and I bought it. It wasn’t a matter of is this the right thing to do or not so it didn’t hit me until William saw it and then he goes, ‘My bike!’ It gives you that tingly feeling and it reminds you of why you wear this badge.”
Chief Fuda says they are still looking for the stolen bike. If you have any information about that, call crimestoppers at 843-554-1111.